Smithsonian Handbooks: Rocks & Minerals (Smithsonian Handbooks)

Rating:
Summary: Accurate but quite problematic
Review: A fascinating work, quite complete with excellent photographs, nature, morphology, and basic geology skills, that is totally despoiled by the fact that it presents no way to identify the samples. Unlike other works which feature hardness scales and allow you to narrow down your search by the streak color, all that is featured in here is the chemical formula of the mineral. What are we to do? Taste the rocks!

Rating:
Summary: I enthusiastically recommend it!
Review: After wading through a half-dozen mineral guides i found this one to be a gem (pun intended). It has large labeled photographs to aid in identification and a very user friendly format. There is enough information here for the extremely curious and features enough to excite dormant curiosity. At the same time, the author's concise style and avoidance of excessive technical jargon make this book appealing even to the very young. I also appreciate his avoidance of pat answers where none have been conclusively found, as when he states that tektite "were once believed to be meteorites" but that "they may not in fact have an extra-terrestrial origin". In short, this is a great addition to any home library.

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful photography
Review: Dorling Kindersley's Handbook of Rocks and Minerals is a more systematick approach to identification. Each entry has a sharp color photo, group name, composition, hardness, SG, cleavage, fracture, formation and tests for id. Thes is a nice basic reference book and a good size (8.5"x6") to tote along. A glossery defines technical terms, common in scientific descriptions.

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful photography
Review: Dorling Kindersley's Handbook of Rocks and Minerals is a more systematick approach to identification. Each entry has a sharp color photo, group name, composition, hardness, SG, cleavage, fracture, formation and tests for id. Thes is a nice basic reference book and a good size (8.5"x6") to tote along. A glossery defines technical terms, common in scientific descriptions.

Rating:
Summary: GeoNewbie
Review: I am new to the study of geology and have found this book to be indispensable in identifying rocks and minerals in the field. It even has a few tips at the beginning about how to do tests, and each mineral suggests tests to further aid in identifying them. It has also been a great reference when reading texts about geology. I use it to look up the rocks and minerals mentioned there. Very helpful for later field study. The least I can say is: buy this book, it is EXCELLENT!!

Rating:
Summary: Great handbook!
Review: I too am in Science Olympiad (div. B), and I found this to be one of the most reliable handbooks that I have used when participating in this event. Its sleek organization and excellent presentation of information make this the best choice among the myriad others that are available.

Rating:
Summary: Great handbook!
Review: I too am in Science Olympiad (div. B), and I found this to be one of the most reliable handbooks that I have used when participating in this event. Its sleek organization and excellent presentation of information make this the best choice among the myriad others that are available.

Rating:
Summary: the ultimate reference series
Review: Rockhounds, Crystal Healers, Students- here it is! The photos & scientific information are "just what the doctor ordered". A perfect addition to a library or guide for a collecting expedition. Also, an EXCELLENT way to see all those stones you keep reading about in texts.

Rating:
Summary: the ultimate reference series
Review: Rockhounds, Crystal Healers, Students- here it is! The photos & scientific information are "just what the doctor ordered". A perfect addition to a library or guide for a collecting expedition. Also, an EXCELLENT way to see all those stones you keep reading about in texts.

Rating:
Summary: Misinformation
Review: This is a colorful book and an acceptable reference for the collector building a collection although it has some incorrect information. Example: The author's classification of a tektite as "terrestrial"--the conventional wisdom, which says that these natural glassy stones are formed as impact melts, is dead wrong! Charles Darwin was right back in 1844 when he described tektites as volcanic (although Darwin assumed them to be from terrestrial eruptions). Tektites are from the Moon! A hypervelocity impact happens too quickly to produce the "good," bubble-free glass of a tektite; and the nearly waterless tektite is as dry as the Moon's surface (the silicate roots of a tektite are igenous/granitic and assuredly not sedimentary as the author notes!). The intricate research of NASA's J.A. O'Keefe, P. Lowman, W. Cameron, and D. Chapman in the 1960s and '70s (and current researcher D. Futrell), demonstrate conclusively that tektites are extraterrestri! al and of lunar volcanic origin.